September 12, 2018

One-Quarter of Facebook Users Have Deleted It: Pew Research

Let’s look at some research that contradicts what we think we know. We’ll start with RIS News’ Retail 2025 Shopper Study, which found that 23% of consumers won’t use voice activated assistants because they’re afraid the device will record their conversations. Other surprises: 15-17 year-olds are more likely to shop in stores or malls than their elders; there’s less interest in subscription services than grab-and-go stores and interactive shoppable screens; and in-store mobile app usage has dropped significantly over the past year. Also: shoppers are more willing to be digitally identified when they enter a store so long as they get special offers in return.

Another surprise: having customer service employees who are friendly and polite is more important to consumers than having agents know in advance who is calling or offering compensation when things go wrong, according to a survey from Customer Contact Week Digital. In fact, the only thing that’s more important than friendly agents is solving the problem quickly. Bad news: just 6% of consumers think unsolicited marketing emails are acceptable and 60% of companies say their phone agents get little or no information when a call is transferred to them from a self-service channel.

By now, it’s not really surprising that people are losing interest in Facebook. Still, the numbers in this Pew Research study are eyebrow-raising: 44% of 18-29 year-olds say they’ve deleted Facebook from their phone in the past year. Across all 18+ Facebook users, 26% say they've deleted it and 42% say they've taken a several week break. Take this with a grain of salt: Facebook itself hasn't reported anything near such a drop. On the other hand, earlier Pew research found that Facebook was used by far fewer U.S. teens (51%) than YouTube (85%), Instagram (72%) or Snapchat (69%).

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